TONERS
Setting the tone Sustainability is becoming an increasing priority for many businesses, and toner cartridges are part of that focus. Manufacturers are responding by making toner cartridges more environmentally friendly and easy to recycle, but how can resellers sell these benefits to customers?
Every year in the UK, millions of toner cartridges are produced, yet only a fraction of those are recycled and millions of spent cartridges end up in landfill where, due to their parts, they can take up to 1,000 years to decompose. This, of course, adds to their environmental cost. With many businesses looking to reduce their carbon footprint and enhance their sustainability, it means that things like toner cartridges can be an important consideration, especially in print-heavy sectors. Customers are increasingly looking for options that do not have the environmental impact but do have recycling options. “In our experience the environmental impact of used toner cartridges is very important to customers and can determine purchasing habits,” says Trevor Maloney, product marketing manager: TASKalfa, at Kyocera. “Kyocera has been at the forefront of toner cartridge design with our toners made up of as few as eight components all plastic made from two types of plastic, all ID marked for ease of recycling.” Kyocera is indicative of OEMs that are looking to make toner cartridges more environmentally friendly, and for many
years the company has been working towards this goal, Trevor notes. “Many of our [Kyocera’s] toners are designed to use far less components that our competitors thus reducing manufacturing, running costs and environmental impact,” he says. “Our TASKalfa SRA3 range even enables users to repurpose the black toner cartridge they have used as the collection bottle for the discarded toner used within the cleaning process.” Return and reuse But it isn’t just about making toner cartridges more environmentally friendly in their manufacturing and composition, it is also about what happens once they have been used. Brother has made strides to promote toner cartridge recycling and has a long-established scheme for this. According to the company, it remanufactures or recycles three million toner cartridges every year, saving about 5,300 tonnes of CO2 – equivalent to taking 1,150 cars off the road. In addition, Brother’s European recycling facilities have been zero waste to landfill accredited since 2013 – stopping 1,500 tonnes of material from ending up in landfill every year. “We’ve built a one-of-a-kind service where
Trevor Maloney product marketing manager – TASKalfa
kyoceradocument solutions.co.uk
Many of our [Kyocera’s] toners are designed to use far less components that our competitors thus reducing manufacturing, running costs and environmental impact. “
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